Nutritional Myths Debunked Again- Zinc

So, from reading my last post it seems clear vitamin C doesn't do much to help prevent or cure the common cold. What about zinc? Here, there may be some evidence zinc can help. The Medical College of Wisconsin reports the following on their HealthLink site:

Studies of the effectiveness of zinc supplements in treating the common cold have yielded conflicting results: some have shown that zinc helps, while others find that it has no effect. A recent entry into the fray is a study of 48 cold sufferers at Wayne State University in Detroit. Half of them were given zinc lozenges and half were given placebos -- identical lozenges with no active ingredients. The zinc group's cold symptoms lasted about 4.5 days. Cold symptoms lasted significantly longer in the group taking placebo lozenges: an average of 8 days.

People joined the study within 24 hours of the onset of their cold symptoms, and they were told to take zinc acetate lozenges containing 13 mg of zinc (or placebo lozenges) every 2-3 hours while they were awake. They took no other cold remedies. Each day they recorded (on a scale of zero to 3) the severity of their cold symptoms overall, and of 10 specific cold symptoms: sore throat, nasal discharge, nasal congestion, sneezing, cough, scratchy throat, hoarseness, muscle ache, fever and headache. The symptom scores were totaled each day.

In addition to having shorter colds overall, coughs and nasal discharge were resolved earlier in those patients taking zinc than in the placebo group. Coughing lasted an average of 3.1 days in the zinc group and 6.3 days in patients taking the placebo. Nasal discharge lasted an average of 4.1 days in the zinc group and 5.8 days in the placebo group.

Guess it couldn't hurt taking some extra zinc when you feel that cold coming on.
Feel good and keep smiling! Pat & Pattie